Interview with a Demon
by Bouncing Soul
Summary: Story of the original destruction of the Cetra, as told by Chaos. Set in the future of my Song of Eternity universe----DISCONTINUED, sorry, lost the spark to write it.
1. Chapter 1

_**Interview with A Demon**_

_**Chapter 1**_

My name is Emily Deegan, and I have a story to tell. A story of love, anger, and sacrifice. A story spanning more time than you could ever imagine. Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself, let me go back to the beginning...

I was and still am a reporter for the _Boston Globe_. It was the middle of July in the summer and I was glad to get my paycheck and make my way to the bank to cash it and go home and rest for the day. I went up to the teller window to take care of my business when someone slid up beside me. I turned, looked at him, and did not recognize him. "What do you want?" I asked him.

He sneered at me before he spoke. He pulled his hand out of his jacket pocket quickly and pointed a pistol at the teller a several other men in line behind me pulled weapons as well. "I want money," he laughed as he pushed me back into the line of people.

Two hours later, we were still sitting there, all the hostages, held at gunpoint by two men as another two loaded bags with money. The police had already surrounded the bank and were negotiating with the robbers. "You should let the women go," a man said as he stared daggers at one of the gunmen.

"You about you shut the hell up?!" he shouted as he smacked the butt of his pistol into the man's head. The man crumpled to the ground and I went to him, the first time I had really got a good look at him. He was over six feet tall with a shaved head, a large black man. I turned his head to get a look at his wound before he regained consciousness and got the surprise of my life. He smiled at me as the blood flowed down into his eyes and face. His eyes were pitch black.

He moved back to his feet and walked near the gunman again. "I said, let the women go. Next time it will not be a request," he threatened the bewildered gunman.

"What the hell is your problem? None of you have to get hurt here, just quit trying to play the hero," the gunman told him as he leveled the gun at the black man's face.

What the man did next was terrifying. He burst out laughing. "Hero? Me? You must not know me very well," he smiled as he stepped to the point where the gun barrel was pointed directly at his chest. What happened next....was sheer bedlam. The front window of the bank shattered as the second gunman that was holding us hostage dropped to the ground with blood spraying from a wound in his neck. When this happened the other hostages ducked and hit the ground, but not me. I was transfixed by the man who had got up after being clubbed on the head with the butt of a pistol.

The moment the glass shattered, everyone looked away, this was when he made his move. Somehow he moved fast enough to take the gun away from the robber and knocked him out with a punch to the jaw. After that, he sprang at the two remaining thieves behind the teller window with inhuman speed and strength. Somehow...his hand turned into a claw of some sort and destroyed one of the guns as he kicked the other from the last thief's grasp. He seemed darker for a second as he grabbed the two thieves and hurled them over the counter into their immobile companions.

A second later the police burst in and took the would-be-robbers away. We were held in the bank a little longer as the police questioned us. I told them what I saw and pointed to the angry looking man.

"What are you? Some sort of mutant? You could have got people killed in there," one of the detectives yelled at him.

"I am no mutant," the man frowned as he pushed away the medic that was trying to tend to his head. "Even if I was, that is not a crime in this country. I just did what I could in the situation," he said as he pulled out his wallet and showed the detective something. "Now if you will kindly leave me alone, I have to get to work tonight," he scoffed as he walked away from them towards the exit.

I tried to get to him before he left and barely caught up to him outside the bank. "My name is Emily Deegan from the Globe, care to explain what happened in there?"

"No." he replied coldly without looking at me.

"I think the people of this city would like to know about the man who somehow, single-handedly took out a quartet of bank robbers, how about a name at least?" I pleaded as I struggled to keep up with him. After he said nothing, I continued. "Maybe they would like to know how he got up from a blow that would kill some people and his eyes were pitch black. Or maybe about how he somehow looked 'different' when he destroyed a gun with his bare hand and one arm tossed the robbers ten feet after knocking another out all in a matter of seconds?"

That got a response from him. "What do you want?" he asked her as he stopped and looked into her face.

"A name, an plausible explanation for what happened back there, anything...," I counted off on my fingers.

"...." He said nothing as he pondered this for a moment before reaching into a pocket of his jacket for a sheet of paper. "Damon Blackheart, come here tonight, you can talk to me afterwards," he said as he handed me a flier for some band.

"Split Infinity? Never heard of them," I said as she read the paper. By the time I looked up again, he was gone.

I sat in the back of the bar at the Avalon club as Split Infinity came on. It was him playing a monstrous 5 string bass, sweating up a storm, a paler man with long black hair frantically, but methodically banging away at the drums, never missing a beat, and a young man, he couldn't have been older that 18 or 19 on the guitar and vocals. I had to admit they put on a good show, even though the whole rock scene isn't my thing.

After the show was over and most of the place cleared out he came over and sat down beside me. "So, you came. What is it you want to know before you publicize what I did today?" he asked as the bartender gave him a shot that he quickly downed.

"I don't know, the more I think about it, the more I can't really believe what I think I saw," I admitted. "It...it just doesn't make sense, unless you lied to the detective about not being a mutant," I told him. "Your hand...it looked like a claw, I swear. And it went right through the gun that one man had. And somehow you moved so fast and were so strong....it was almost like you were..." I shrugged.

"A demon?" he laughed as I looked at him and fainted at the sight of his fangs and dark black skin, not his usual chocolate brown, and dark black eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Interview with A Demon**_

_**Chapter 2**_

I blinked my eyes as I sat up and looked around. Nothing was really visible for a few seconds as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I recognized shapes of a dresser, some light coming from a window to the outside, and more light from a door leading to the rest of the house. "Where the hell am I?' I groaned as I got up from the bed and cradled my head in my hands. "Last thing I remember..," I muttered as I thought back to the man, Damon, suddenly looking like a demon.

I walked over to the door and put my ear up to it, hoping to hear something from the outside, trying to figure out where I was.

"So, you want to go to bed or anything?" a female voice asked.

"No, we are supposed to be waiting for the woman listening at the door to wake up," a young man's voice replied.

I pushed the door open slowly and peeked out at a surprising sight, a pair of late-teenaged kids sitting on the couch watching TV. "Um..., what's going on?" I asked them.

The guy laughed to himself. "Go get Damon," he told the girl who went down the hall into another room. "Have a seat," he said as he motioned me to the seat by him on the couch.

"You're the singer from his band aren't you?" I asked him as I recognized his face.

"Yes, and sorry for bringing you here, but he mentioned you were a reporter," the boy said to me as I sat down.

"Yes, Emily Deegan, for the _Boston Globe_," I admitted. "He isn't going to kill me or anything is he?" I asked nervously.

"That's a good one," he laughed as he leaned back into his seat. "If we wanted you dead, you'd be dead by now," he said casually as I just stared at him. "But from what I gather, you saw him 'do his thing', and..." he was cut off as the girl brought Damon back into the room.

"I will handle this Cole. You and Cailin can get to sleep," he said as the teen got up.

"Good, I'm bushed," he yawned as he stretched out. "By the way, she doesn't seem to trust us and thinks you might kill her. Play nice," he laughed as he left the room with the girl.

"Kill you, that's a good one," Damon laughed as he walked to the kitchen area of the room.

I looked over at him as he began to mix himself something from the mini-bar. "Umm, whatever you're having is fine," I told him as he continued making a second drink. He came back over and sat beside me on the couch as he handed me the drink. "Thank you," I said as he sipped his drink.

"We brought you here because you fainted at the club, sorry if I had startled you," he told me as he muted the TV.

"So... what exactly are you? A mutant of some kind?" I asked him before he held his hand up, motioning for me to stop.

"First thing first. I'll tell you all about me, but you cannot tell anyone what you saw at the bank today. The four of us here, we value our privacy and do not want people beating down our door for interviews," he explained.

"But, the people have a right to know what you did today. I'm sure no one would care that you are a mutant," I told him.

"When I say that you cannot tell anyone, I mean that the paper will never print the story even if you can get them to believe it. We have friends in high places and they help look out for us as well. I'm just telling you all this so you don't spend needless time and energy on a story that will never be printed," he told me. "You may begin your questions when ready," he told me.

"Okay, what is your full name, age, and where are you from?" I asked as I quickly slipped back into reporter mode. _I'll find someone to print this story,_ I thought to myself.

"Damon Blackheart, no middle name. 26 or a little over a million depending on how you look at it. And my birthplace has long since been destroyed by the forces of the Planet," he said as I stared at him.

"Okay...," I stuttered as I tried to process the information. "What are you? A mutant of some kind?"

"No," he said as he held up his hand and it transformed into the claw of a demon. "Let's just say I have a bit of a demon inside me," he smiled.

"Million years old, demon, ... this has to be a joke, right?" I asked him.

"You're understandably confused," he admitted. "Let me start back at the beginning, trust me, it will all be clear soon enough," he said as he took another drink and began to tell me his story.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Interview with A Demon**_

_**Chapter 3**_

"When I was born a long time ago, the world was a very different place. Technology was almost non-existent, but we made due with what we had. Picture 15th century Europe or so if you need to get a better idea," he spoke. "Well, at least the common people, my people had no technology, nothing special. There was another race on the planet at the time, they called themselves the Cetra, we called them the Ancients."

"They had come from space to protect the planet and had the power to get in touch with the planet's soul itself, the Lifestream and manifest it in magical powers. They built great cities and temples in 4 places where the Lifestream would bubble to the surface. The cities were Ragnarok, Pandemonium, Alexander, and Midgar. They were very beautiful places, but we the common people were not allowed to enter them. The Cetra did not want us to be near the Lifestream for fear of what it may do to us, or what we may do to it," he said as he paused to take a drink. "You with me so far?"

"Okay…preindustrial society, upper class from space that can use magic, lower class kept away from Lifestream," I ran over the points. "What is this Lifestream? If it bubbles to the surface why haven't I heard of it?" I asked him.

"The Lifestream is the soul of the planet, in my time it was a massive green sea of energy deep under the surface of the planet. It changed a long time ago and now resides as a part of each person, and is a little stronger in mutants, giving them the powers they have," he explained.

"Anyway, I was born in a small village outside of the city of Midgar," he continued. "When I was young, there was a small meteor strike on the other side of Midgar. The Cetra went to investigate it and shortly after closed the cities and let no one in or out. We didn't think anything of it, we went on with our lives. I became one of the town guards by the age of 16 and the captain by 22 due to my great skill with swords and other weapons. I married at 18, as was the custom, to my wife Jenna and we had a child a year later. Life was good for a while," he sighed.

"But then something went wrong," I said as I examined the look on his face.

"Yeah, you could say that," he smirked. "Strange things started happening around our village. Livestock disappearing or being mutilated, unknown tracks on the ground, strange sounds at night, things like that. We sent runners to other villages, but never heard from them again. There was nothing we could really do, so I gave the order to fortify the town, increase patrols, and lock down the village at night."

"It was a week after our 5th anniversary when we finally started to get an idea of what was going on…" he told me of the night as I listed intently.

_A man stood leaning on a fence at the edge of the village, staring out into the night. "Fucking bullshit night detail, this is the 3rd day in a row," he swore as he twirled his spear in one hand. "Stupid animals, nothing is coming close to this damn town, I should be asleep at my house," he ranted. _

_"Not with you being loud enough to wake the whole village they aren't Michael," Damon spoke as he came up behind his friend._

_"Gee, thanks for scaring the hell out of me Damon, not to mention all the night details and double shifts too, some pal you are," Michael scowled at Damon._

_"A dirty job but someone has to do it," Damon replied as he leaned on the fence next to his friend._

_"Damn it Damon, we grew up together, best friends. We played out there in the woods and fields all the time. Sure there are wolves and the Zolems, but that is all, what gives with all the damn security?" Michael asked him._

_Damon stared out into the darkness before speaking. "Don't you ever feel like something out there is watching you? Like there is something just out of your line of vision when you are on patrol? Shadows you glimpse, but then turn to find nothing casting them?"_

_"Yeah, it's called freaking out from being on patrol 10 hours a day for the last month," Michael joked. He looked at his friend who continued to stare out into the darkness. "You're serious, aren't you? Man, you need to get a grip before they demote you. All this increased security is bad enough, you start talking about weird things out there and they are gonna demote you, and I do not want to have to take over and do your job for you."_

_They stood there looking around, listening for 5 minutes. "Listen Damon, you understand what I am saying?" Michael asked him. "At least say something," he pleaded after another minute of silence._

_"Shhhh," Damon whispered, his eyes narrowed at a spot in the darkness. "It is right there, been watching you for the last half hour. Fifty yards, in the direction of the sunrise, near where we found those tracks last week. Don't let it know you can see it," Damon warned as Michael shrugged._

_"There is nothing there Damon, I can't see anything," Michael told him after a minute._

_"It is there, it has been watching you for the last 3 nights. Why else would I have you and all the other guards out here on the same night shifts for three nights?" Damon explained to him before looking up at the moon._

_"What? What the hell is going on Damon?"_

_"All 20 guard posts have been being watched by them for the last 3 days, we kept you guards in the dark on it so we could get the element of surprise. Get ready, they usually travel in pairs," Damon whispered as a whistle was heard in the village._

_Immediately a fire lit in the village and raced out towards the darkness in all directions. "Come on!" Damon shouted as he drew his sword and ran out keeping pace a few feet behind the edge of a trail of fire._

_Cursing, Michael grabbed his spear and chased after his friend briefly noting the smell of oil and wondering if his friend was insane. "What in the hell?" he muttered as the fire trail raced past 2 dark figures and spread out. "You circled the town in oil? Are you insane?" he shouted as he got a good look at the dark figures._

_"Only way to make sure none of them escaped," Damon said as he took a battle stance._

_"What the hell are they?" Michael asked as he looked at the two creatures in front of them. _

_Damon wondered the same thing. They were vaguely shaped like men, but the bodies were distorted, the arms elongated and the hands ending in claws. "Be careful Michael, look at the claws," Damon warned as he circled the one closest to him and left Michael to the other._

_The monsters growled and attacked them. They were large and strong, but not as fast as the trained guardsmen who dodged and attacked, wounding the creatures greatly. Damon slashed at the hand as his foe swung at him, cutting cleanly through it and continuing with his momentum until he had made a 360 and decapitated the monster. Michael has used his spear like a pole vault to propel himself into the monster knocking it onto it's back, then impaled the creature, pinning it to the ground._

_"You okay?" Damon asked as he studied the creature. _

_"Peachy, next time you plan to ambush something, tell me beforehand," Michael joked as he looked at the monster. "What the hell is it doin…" his voice trailed off as he and Damon both dove away from the monster which hurled a ball of fire at them, before groaning and falling still._

_"That was magic!" Michael shouted as he examined his singed clothes._

_"These monsters... The only ones that can use magic are the Cetra," Damon said as he went to examine the monster closer._

_"You telling me the Cetra are sending these things to kill us? Why? What did we ever do to them? Hell, they don't even allow us in their damn cities. Why would they send monsters after us?" Michael shouted._

_"I don't think these monsters were sent by the Cetra," Damon said quietly as he pulled something from the body and held it up to the light. It was a glittering metal object on a chain, a key of some kind. "I think these monsters are the Cetra…"_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Interview with A Demon**_

**_Chapter 4_**

"So the creatures that were stalking your village were the Cetra? What were they Cetra like? They can't have always been like how you found them," Emily asked him.

"The Cetra, before Jenova perverted them and twisted them to her own gains, looked just like normal people for the most part," Damon told her. "The only real difference was that their eyes would glow a little some of the time and that they could talk to the planet and use magic."

"Jenova? Who is that?"

"I'll get to it eventually, it would be easiest if you learned things as I learned them in a proper chronology," he explained. He turned his head as the front door opened and two people walked in. "Welcome home," he greeted them.

I examined the pair as they shed their coats eyed me up. The first was a man in his late 20s with long black hair dressed in black, I recognized him as the drummer from the band. His companion was a shorter blonde woman, maybe a few years younger. She was dressed in a blue suit and looked perturbed at Damon.

"Mind explaining what you were thinking at the club Damon?" she asked him angrily.

"Nice to see you too Elena," he replied sarcastically.

"You were supposed to give her an excuse, not do your thing in front of her and bring her back to the damn apartment," she stared daggers at Damon.

"Okay, Elena, go make some coffee. I'll deal with this," the man ordered as he ushered the woman towards the kitchen.

"You are so not getting any tonight Vincent," she swore as she stormed off.

"Sorry about that, but we value our privacy. And with you seeing Damon do certain things, we can't have you telling it to everyone you meet," he explained. "And with a certain someone turning into a demon in a bar, it takes a bit of explaining and getting the staff too drunk to remember correctly to cover it up," he stared at Damon. "What's done is done, my name is Vincent Valentine. And you are?"

"Emily Deegan," I replied meekly.

"That's Elena in the kitchen, and you have already met Damon. I hope he has not scared you too much."

"Uh, no, not at all," I lied.

"You're a bad liar," he laughed. "Anyway, what is going on?" he directed the second question at Damon.

Damon stared back at him silently, neither saying anything, as if it were a test of wills. "I am telling her how I came to be as such," Damon replied simply. "She knows she cannot tell this to anyone and the repercussions if she does."

"You trust her? She is a reporter remember. It is her job to tell interesting things, things like you are telling her, to the masses," Elena said coldly as she came back in and handed Vincent a cup of coffee.

"I'm right here you know," I said angrily. "Don't worry, no one would believe this anyway from what I have heard so far…" I muttered.

"Ah, the power of the truth is that no one wants to hear it," Damon smiled.

"Mind if we sit in, I really have never heard the whole thing about how you came to be you, just the jumbled bits we shared," Vincent asked Damon.

"…As you wish," Damon replied as Vincent and Elena sat down next to each other. "I was just at the point where we found the key on the Cetra we killed…"

_"The trap worked as well as could be expected," Damon explained to the town council. "Of the 20 guard posts being watched by 2 creatures each we killed 27 of the creatures, sustained 4 injuries and no fatalities. On 4 of the creatures we killed, we found these," he displayed 3 objects and the one he found last night. "I assume you know what these are council members," he said darkly as he handed them to the council._

_"You are correct Damon, these are the keys the Cetra use to enter and exit their cities, very few outside of the council know of them," the mayor told him as produced an identical key from a chain around his neck. "They gave one to each town as well, but I am surprised you knew what they were," the man said._

_"I recognized it from the mantle of your fireplace when I was courting Jenna. You should be more careful what you tell your daughter," Damon smirked. "The important question we have to ask is, where did they get the keys?" he said seriously. "There are 2 options. One is that they have destroyed every other town on the planet and we happened to kill every one that carried the keys, but that is highly unlikely. The second is that they got them from the source, the Cetra."_

_"Are you suggesting the Cetra have been destroyed by these monsters?" a council member spoke up._

_"No," Damon replied._

_"You think the Cetra would send these creatures to destroy us," the mayor stated._

_"I think they are here to destroy us, yes. They are not sent by the Cetra though," Damon replied as he handed a folder to the council. "We did an autopsy this morning, those things are the Cetra. I plan to leave tomorrow and go to Midgar to investigate what has happened," he finished as the council talked among themselves._

_After several minutes of speaking, the mayor talked to him. "Your idea is terrifying Damon, but if the Cetra have become monsters, we cannot allow you to leave. We need you to stay here and coordinate the defenses of the town and try to contact other villages," he commanded._

_"Sir, I think we are overlooking the big problem here. Anyone can defend a town, I need to go find what is going on!" Damon shouted._

_"The council's decision is final, go home Damon," the mayor told him as he and the council filed out of the room._

_Damon slammed the door as he walked in his house. "Idiots!" he screamed as he punched a wall. "Blind to the truth…only worried about saving their own skin," he muttered as he leaned his head on the wall._

_"There you are," Michael said as he poked his head in the door._

_"…" Damon said nothing as he slumped down into a chair._

_"Is that you Damon?" Jenna's voice came as she came into the kitchen where Damon and Michael were talking. _

_"Daddy!" a child's voice cried as a boy, no older than 4 ran into Damon's arms._

_"Alex," Damon smiled as he hugged his child. "Go play with your toys, Uncle Michael and Daddy need to talk," he said softly as he put his son down._

_"Okay!" the boy said happily as he ran off to play._

_"Didn't go well, I take it," Jenna said as she rested her palms on her husband's shoulders and started to massage him._

_"No, your father and the council are making me stay here and defend the city and are ignoring the problem," he said as he looked at his wife and brother-in-law._

_"Yeah, pops seemed pretty freaked when you gave him those keys though," Michael said. "I'm gonna get back to my place, I have some stuff to do. See you soon Damon," he said as he left the house whistling._

_"You're mad," Jenna stated._

_"Seething," Damon replied._

_"You'll do the right thing, you always do," she replied as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'm gonna make dinner, lamb okay for you?"_

_"Yes, of course," he smiled as he thought of his wife's cooking, but darkened as he began to think of defending the city._

_Later that night, around midnight he stretched in his study. He had just completed drawing up plans for the defense of the city and placed them all in a folder on his desk with a letter pinned to the top. He turned around suddenly as he heard a knocking on his window._

_"What are you doing?" he asked as he opened the window and saw Michael with 2 chocobos._

_"Well, I know we found more keys than you gave the council," Michael smiled. "I also know you took out supplies from the barracks earlier today before the council meeting. I put two and two together and figured horses would be fastest for us to the get to Midgar."_

_"…" Damon said nothing as he tossed a duffel bag of supplies at his friend. "You know me too well," he replied as he crabbed his cloak and sword and left his house, closing the window behind him._

_"The mayor and council are gonna be pissed when we find out we are gone," Michael said as they headed to the edge of town. _

_"Michael, aren't these the mayor's pure-bred horses he had shipped in last year for his stable?" Damon asked as they passed between guard posts unseen._

_"Well…he won't miss them, they are going to a good cause," Michael laughed._

_"You notice anything weird with some of the council members today at the meeting?" Damon asked as they set out towards the city._

_"Besides them being pissed the whole city smelled like oil smoke and scared shitless because we killed 27 monsters? Naw, nothing odd at all," he said sarcastically. "Why? What's got you spooked?" he asked seriously._

_"It's probably nothing," Damon replied. "Just that when I showed them the keys and told them what we found from the autopsy, some of them were staring daggers at me," he said as his mind drifted back to the letter he left for his wife._

_Jenna, make sure these papers get to the barracks and Lieutenant Forth, he is next in charge of the defense of the city. I am going to Michael's to take him with me to Midgar to find out what is going on. Tell your father to be wary of the rest of the council, something is amiss, but I can't put my finger on it. Take care of Alex, I will return as soon as I can._


End file.
